(1 of )FILE - This undated booking photo provided by the Miami-Dade Police Department, on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013, shows Anthony Bosch. A person familiar with the case tells The Associated Press Tuesday June 4, 2013 that Anthony Bosch has agreed to talk to Major League Baseball about players linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera are among the players whose names have been tied to the clinic. (AP Photo/Miami-Dade Police Department, File)

(2 of )FILE - From left are file photos showing Major League Baseball players Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera. The founder of a Miami anti-aging clinic has agreed to talk to Major League Baseball about players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press on Tuesday night, June 4, 2013. The person declined to be identified because the investigation was still ongoing. Information that Anthony Bosch provides MLB on players who came to the now-closed Biogenesis of America clinic could lead to suspensions. Rodriguez, Braun, Cruz and Cabrera are among the players whose names have been tied to the clinic. (AP Photo/File)

COHN: MLB right to try to punish baseball's bad guys

LOWELL COHN

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | June 6, 2013

Major League Baseball is trying to get the bad guys.

Good for Major League Baseball.

By the bad guys, I don't mean crooks or murderers or spies, nothing as sinister as that. I'm talking about the drug-cheating liars who are messing up the national pastime. Some are repeat cheaters. Some are the biggest names in baseball.

They are bad guys.

Multiple sources are reporting MLB has a deal in place for a big drug bust, the grand slam of all drug busts. It's about an apparently marginal character named Tony Bosch who ran a Miami facility that supposedly fought against the ravages of aging, but on the side or up the middle apparently dispensed all kinds of illegal substances, substances banned in baseball.

Have you seen photos or watched interviews of Bosch? Sleaze City. He looks like a guy who slithers around Times Square and hides phony Rolex watches inside his trench coat and sells them to tourists from Des Moines.

I'm guessing he's a bad guy, too.

It seems MLB has him by the — name a body part — and he's about to sing like a canary and blow the cover of at least 20 cheaters. Since 2005, MLB has suspended 42 players for drug use, no more than 12 in a calendar year. So, this would be a lollapalooza.

And more busts may come later. Some of these alleged baseball phonies could get suspended 100 games, although the players' union will fight any suspensions, as usual, and the whole thing may go to an arbitrator.

Here are some big-name players who may be cheaters and phonies: Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Melky Cabrera and the A's Bartolo Colon. No Giants have been fingered — yet.

Rodriguez admitted using performance-enhancing drugs 2001-03 before MLB testing and sanctions went into effect. He swore he stopped — cross his heart, hope to die. But if these allegations are true, he lied.

What a surprise.

In 2011, Braun tested off the charts for testosterone but got off on a weasel-like technicality about where and when his urine sample was stored. Then he told a band of reporters no banned substances ever entered the temple of his body. His news conference was a real tear-jerker.

Question: How much credibility does Ryan Braun have with you?

If Cabrera and Colon get banned 100 games, they will have been banned two years in a row — you have to work hard to receive such an honor.

Here is a statement of my bias: If these guys did what I think they did and if MLB can prove it, I want them suspended 100 games or more. Baseball should not tolerate PED cheating. It must penalize even the most famous stars to clean up its game — the game is not clean.

Here is the rationale for my bias: Cheating is wrong.

That may seem naive or even quaint to you. And I may be naive. But I believe in the concept "wrong." And I believe wrong is not right. And I believe drug cheating in baseball is plain wrong.

You may say, "Baseball is just entertainment. So who cares what players put in their bodies?"

I cannot abide that weak, spineless, amoral argument. Baseball is entertainment, but it is not entertainment like a Broadway play or a flick. Baseball keeps batting and pitching stats and daily team standings. Cheating affects all that, affects the game's integrity.

If you think players should take anything they want to take — hey, it's their bodies — don't forget this. PED use raises serious medical issues. Santa Rosa physician Gary Furness, a doc for the California State Athletic Commission, emailed me these notes about the health risks of PEDs:

"PEDs are not tested in 'normal subjects,' for a good reason. Much more likely to harm than help long term (e.g. cancer, hypertension, blood clots, etc.)"

Furness was so worked up he shot off a second email: "Other likely issues: deleterious effects on blood sugar, and unfavorable change in cholesterol makeup for increased risk of heart attack and strokes down the road. Where do you draw the line? Is it OK for college athletes? High school? Junior high?"

Many people blame commissioner Bud Selig for the drug mess in baseball — and he bears tremendous responsibility, although when all this started, few were well-informed on the subject of PEDs in baseball, and that goes for Selig, too.

He dithered when chemical freaks Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa duked it out for the home-run record, and he was powerless to stop the cheater Barry Bonds. Baseball benefited from those freak shows, and he knew it and he let it happen.

We know all that. But he's doing something now. Give him credit.

What's he doing?

He's going after the alleged bad guys and if they turn out to be real bad guys, I hope he gets them. You should, too.

You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.